ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN

BATOR, MONGOLIA

GEOGRAPHY

RESEARCH QUESTION:

To what extent was the construction of the new Traffic Police Bridge in the
Central Business District of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia necessary to reduce the
traffic congestion and improve the environmental quality in the city?

Examination Session: May 2020

Word Count: 4,000

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Abstract
Ulan Bator’s existing road network does not provide for the increasing demand of the people
placed upon it and therefore the new Traffic Police Bridge had to be constructed in 2019. After
carefully observing and thinking about the problems of traffic jam in the city, I decided to provide
an investigation into how the newly built bridge would take the residents of Ulaanbaatar to a new
step for solving the traffic congestion in the city. I, personally, believe that an effect of this bridge
would not only be a reduction in the traffic congestion of the city but also an improvement in the
environmental quality of heavily congested areas.
After collecting adequate amount of primary and secondary information, it was found that traffic
congestion appeared to be reducing around the Central Business District areas mostly, which are
the most densely populated areas of the city. The primary evidence collected found the responses
of over 300 people, predominantly from the Central Business District area, on the issue of traffic
congestion and the problems further caused by it including decrease in environmental quality in
that area, pressures on transport through the city and on the flow and efficiency of works and
businesses, and was further supported by various Mongolian articles about the primary objectives
of constructing the Traffic Police Bridge and contrasted whether the results met the objectives of
the government, planning schemes and numerous articles assessing this issue. The concept of
solving traffic congestion issues with new bridges however, raises further questions like to what
extent the construction of a new bridge was necessary for reducing traffic congestion and
improving transport throughout the city. Therefore, this essay also attempts to identify other
possible, preferable solutions to traffic congestion based on people’s responses followed with
articles about urban management in latest newspapers and magazines published by official
broadcasts.
Consequently, this essay examines the influence that the Traffic Police Bridge will have on the
traffic congestion and the environmental quality of Ulan Bator, in response to the research
question:
• To what extent was the construction of the new Traffic Police Bridge in the
Central Business District of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia necessary to reduce traffic
congestion and improve the environmental quality in the city?

Word count: 369

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Table of Contents
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 2
List of figures ................................................................................................................................................ 4
List of tables.................................................................................................................................................. 4
List of appendices ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 6
Data collection ............................................................................................................................................ 16
Data presentation and analysis .................................................................................................................... 20
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 28
Appendices.................................................................................................................................................. 29
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................... 33

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

List of figures
Figure 1 - Urban Land Use models (DP Geography at NIS, Retrieved in 2020) ........................... 6
Figure 2 - Population density of Mongolia (Georef.net, Retrieved in 2019) .................................. 7
Figure 3 - Detailed road network of Mongolia (Mapsland.com, 2020) .......................................... 8
Figure 4 - Daily traffic jam in UB (Nerguibaatar Tsevegjav, 2014) .............................................. 9
Figure 5 - Typical traffic in UB on a workday (Google.com, 2020) ............................................ 10
Figure 6 - Typical traffic in UB on a workday (Google.com, 2020) ............................................ 11
Figure 7 - Typical traffic on a weekday (Google.com, 2020) ...................................................... 12
Figure 8 - UB's road share (Nerguibaatar Tsevegjav, 2014) ........................................................ 13
Figure 9 - The link between Olympic Street and the Great Mongolian Street (Google.com, 2020)
....................................................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 10 - CBD of UB (Google.com, 2019) ............................................................................... 14
Figure 11 - The new Traffic Police Bridge (Eguur.mn, 2019) ..................................................... 14
Figure 12 - The areas investigated (Google.com, 2019) ............................................................... 17
Figure 13 - Shangri-La Mall Residence, UB (Shangrila.com, Retrieved in 2020) ....................... 17
Figure 14 - State Department Store, UB (Agefotostock.com, 2018) ............................................ 18
Figure 15 - E-mart Department Store (Twitter.com, 2016) .......................................................... 18
Figure 17 – Results from survey question "What emotion best describes your feelings about the
new bridge?" ................................................................................................................................. 21
Figure 16 - Results from survey question: “What age group are you in?” ................................... 21
Figure 18 - Response to survey question: “What do you think is the main benefit of the bridge?”
....................................................................................................................................................... 22
Figure 19 - Response to survey question: “What is your main concern about the construction of
the bridge?” ................................................................................................................................... 22
Figure 20 - Response to survey question: “Do you believe the bridge will reduce traffic
congestion in the future?” ............................................................................................................. 23
Figure 21 - Response to survey question: “What is the best solution for reducing traffic
congestion in the city?” ................................................................................................................. 24

List of tables
Table 1 - Meanings of marks given for EQS ................................................................................ 26
Table 2 - Results for EQS #1, Shangri-La Mall............................................................................ 26
Table 3 - Results for EQS #1, State Department Store ................................................................. 26
Table 4 - Results for EQS #1, E-mart Department Store .............................................................. 26
Table 5 - Results for EQS #2, Shangri-La Mall............................................................................ 26
Table 6 - Results for EQS #2, State Department Store ................................................................. 26
Table 7 - Results for EQS #2, E-mart Department Store .............................................................. 27

List of appendices
Appendix 1 - Opinion Based Survey (Author's own) ................................................................... 29
Appendix 2 - Opinion Based Survey in Mongolian (Author's own) ............................................ 29

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Appendix 3 – Sample OBS (Author's own) .................................................................................. 30

Appendix 4 - Respondent's thoughts on the Traffic Police Bridge (Author’s own) ..................... 30
Appendix 5 - Respondent's thoughts on the new Traffic Police Bridge (Author’s own) ............. 31
Appendix 6 - Respondent's Thought on the Traffic Police Bridge (Author's own) ...................... 31
Appendix 7 - Environmental Quality Survey (Author's own) ...................................................... 32

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Introduction
The Central Business District, or CBD for short, is the commercial center of a city. The CBD of a
modern society can be described as follows: ‘It integrates a great deal of financial, business,
culture and service institutions, and lots of supporting facilities, such as business office buildings,
hotels and apartments, etc., with perfect and convenient traffic, communications and other
infrastructures, favorable economic development environment and places which are convenient
for commercial activities’ (Dalian University of Technology, China). From the extensive
definition, it can be derived that the Central Business District area is the most integrated and
interacted part of a city, from where the country can gain advantages to compete in global markets,
participate in global affairs and build strong relations with nations all over the world – which is
vital in the era of globalization. Whether the business meetings and other types of interactions will
be going right on time and successful or behind time and fruitless, decides how well arranged the
CBD is. This arrangement could include all the features of the CBD such as housings and
commercial buildings, streets, open spaces and gardens, however, most importantly, the major
transport routes and traffic. Terms such as the financial district, downtown, and city center are
used interchangeably to describe the CBD.

Figure 1 - Urban Land Use models (DP Geography at NIS, Retrieved in 2020)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

According to both the Burgess and the Hoyt models, the financial district must be in the very center
of the city with other zones including factories, high, middle- and low-class residentials outside of
the center (Figure 1). This is because it has to be the most accessible location to services and
community, therefore there has to be no geographical barriers to separate communities.
CBD has the most movement of people and is a district with the largest population in the urban
region. However, the difference in ratio of daytime population to nighttime population is high.
This focusing effect during the day suggests that although the CBD of an urban can bring more
business opportunities with lower cost and promote economic development of a city, it can also
have serious negative impacts such as heavy traffic; pollution, leading to low environmental
quality and dense population. The community’s constant goal is to renew and improve the
standards of their transport routes and infrastructure. So, what is the case in Ulan Bator, Mongolia?

The capital city, Ulan

Bator.

Figure 2 - Population density of Mongolia (Georef.net, Retrieved in 2019)

Ulan Bator, or UB for short, is not only the capital city of Mongolia, but also the most densely
populated city. Its total population is 1.3 million, which is over half of the total population of
Mongolia. The city covers over 1,800 square miles and has a population density of 704 people per
square mile (Figure 2) (World population review, 2019). How does the city’s road network cater
for this ever-increasing population density? The job is hard, and the officials in the past years have
put countless efforts to improve the road network, focusing mostly on the downtown area. This
approach is the most effective because a downtown of high-quality means increased interactions
and competitiveness of businesses, faster development, and is generally largely beneficial for the
country’s economy.

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Figure 3 - Detailed road network of Mongolia (Mapsland.com, 2020)

Ulan Bator’s high population density and poor land use management are responsible for the
increasing traffic congestion and decreasing environmental quality around the downtown. Figures
4, 5 and 6 show the typical traffic jam in the downtown area during workdays. Contrasting them
with Figure 7, it is possible to see that the difference between the amount of traffic in the city
center during workdays and during weekends are huge.
As back as the 2000’s the case was mounted that Ulan Bator’s transport network will not provide
for UB’s future urban expansion and growing transport needs. The effect is a “positive feedback”
in which the growing need for private cars caused by the increasing traffic congestion further
increases the traffic congestion in the CBD. It can be seen from Figure 8 that majority of the people
own a car and use them on a daily basis to go to work, school and kindergarten. The necessity for
a new bridge around the CBD area was recognized in order to reduce future increased traffic
congestion and air, noise and visual pollution in the area. Translated from Mongolian, the Prime
Minister states: “The capital city was primarily constructed to fit 500,000 people. However, today,
we have over 1.5 million people living in the city. Because of this, we are facing issues such as
high traffic congestion and poor environmental quality. To solve these problems, I believe the
Traffic Police Bridge will contribute a large part” (News.mn, 2019). The aim for the construction
of the bridge was also to allow faster and easier access between the two downtown streets, the

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Olympic Street and the Great Mongolian Street (Figure 9), which will furthermore, have an impact
on reducing traffic congestion in other areas of the city, since many people living in the Great
Mongolian Street would take the new bridge to reach the CBD. You can see the CBD of Ulan
Bator from Figure 10 below.
The new Traffic Police Bridge was proposed and constructed near the Shangri-La Mall Residence
(Figures 9 and 11), which is a major downtown use and attraction, beginning in summer 2017 and
ending on 16th September 2019. Therefore, this essay aims to prove the need for the construction
of a new bridge in order to reduce the traffic congestion in Ulan Bator city.

Figure 4 - Daily traffic jam in UB (Nerguibaatar Tsevegjav, 2014)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

The Central Square of Ulan Bator

Monday

1km

Figure 5 - Typical traffic in UB on a workday (Google.com, 2020)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

The Central Square Wednesday

1km

Figure 6 - Typical traffic in UB on a workday (Google.com, 2020)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

The Central Square

Saturday

1km

Figure 7 - Typical traffic on a weekday (Google.com, 2020)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Figure 8 - UB's road share (Nerguibaatar Tsevegjav, 2014)

Shangri-La Mall Residence

100m

Figure 9 - The link between Olympic Street and the Great Mongolian Street (Google.com, 2020)

Olympic Street The Great

Mongolian Street

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

500m
Figure 10 - CBD of UB (Google.com, 2019)

Shangri-La Mall Residence

The Traffic Police

B id

Figure 11 - The new Traffic Police Bridge (Eguur.mn, 2019)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Translated from Mongolian, Head of Traffic and Road projects in Ulan Bator city informed: “Some
studies show drivers spend approximately 45 days in a year standing in traffic jams of Ulaanbaatar
city. Moreover, the traffic congestion is instigated by drivers searching for parking spots as it is
concluded that 25 percent of drivers travel on the road at a speed of 15 km per hour for around
15-20 minutes only in search of parking spots” (Ulaanbaatar MONTSAME, 2016). As the
frequency in addressing the issues of traffic congestion and the pollution produced by traffic
congestion increased, officials began acting in which they realized that a construction of a new
bridge specifically located in the CBD area was necessary. This essay aims to support these claims
and also to go even further in identifying other possible solutions associated with traffic congestion
issues.

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Data collection
A large part of this essay attempts to examine the claims by means of a survey in order to gain an
idea of the citizens of city Ulan Bator and visitors from a broad cross section of ages, views on the
newly constructed Traffic Police Bridge and the city’s traffic congestion along with environmental
quality standards. Thus, the investigation underwent an environmental quality survey, or EQS, and
an Opinion Based Survey, or OBS, to examine the amount of pollution (noise and visual) the
construction of the bridge has caused and to determine the quality of streets, the quality and number
of traffic and parking spaces in densely populated, heavily congested areas. The survey mostly
aims to identify people’s thoughts on traffic congestion and their concerns about the construction
of the bridge and whether they think it was necessary for the reduction of traffic congestion in
heavily congested areas and an improvement in the environmental quality of such areas. This data
collected is then further supported by secondary evidence gathered from articles addressing this
issue in journals, blogs and newspapers.
The environmental survey had to be conducted two times in total. The first one was done before
the Traffic Police Bridge was officially opened and in use, and the second one was two months
after the bridge was opened and in use. The aim is to compare these surveys to one another. Both
times, the survey was conducted over a period of three workdays. First time, it was from September
2nd to September 4th 2019 and for the second time, the survey was conducted from November 18th
to November 20th. The surveys were conducted around the most densely populated areas and the
areas in which most movement of people occurred. These are officially considered as the Central
Business District areas according to the Hoyt and Burgess urban land use models in the
introduction part. Thus, three different places in the CBD area were chosen to be investigated
(Figure 12):
1) Shangri-La Mall Residence (Figure 13). This is the area where the Traffic Police Bridge was
constructed. It is a crucial part of the downtown, hosting business and other types of formal
meetings, and allowing friends and family gatherings. It is consisted of a hotel, restaurants, movie
theatre, coffee shops, brand shops, beauty clinics and spa services, VR games and other interactive
activities.
2) The State Department Store (Figure 14). The biggest convenient store in the capital, consisting
of shops, movie theatres, cafes and fast food restaurants. The area is surrounded by residential
buildings, offices, banks and contains monuments and statues, and an open space for children to
play and friends and families to hang out.
3) E-mart Department Store (Figure 15). A newly built home shopping and grocery shopping store
that consists of again, restaurants, coffee shops, food courts, brand shops, car parking spaces,
beauty clinics and pharmacies. Right next to the department store lies the fancy Chinggis Khan
Hotel; and the area is developed with houses, residential buildings and schools to the north-west.

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

500m

Figure 12 - The areas investigated (Google.com, 2019)

The State Department Store E-mart Department Store

Shangri-La Hotel

Figure 13 - Shangri-La Mall Residence, UB (Shangrila.com, Retrieved in 2020)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Figure 14 - State Department Store, UB (Agefotostock.com, 2016)

Figure 15 - E-mart Department Store (Twitter.com, 2016)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

The Environmental Quality Survey was conducted and were given points out of 30. Note that this
is an imaginary score made up by the author to make the survey simpler and more systematic.
Therefore, it is right to perceive 30 as 100 percent.
To investigate the overall environmental quality in the three CBD areas before and after the bridge
was constructed, the following qualities were assessed and given points out of 10:
- Amount of traffic congestion
- Amount of noise pollution (caused by traffic)
- Amount of visual pollution (caused by traffic)
The amount of air pollution only caused by traffic congestion could not be measured with the
current devices and equipment the school had, because the air pollution in Ulan Bator is largely
contributed by the ‘Ger Districts’ which make up more than 25 percent of the city population
(Borgenproject.org, 2018) and it was hard to measure the air pollution distinguishing between
these two sources.
Systematic measurements were not necessary to be conducted, just a qualitative observation was
done. To make the observations more accurate, I had three friends of mine to conduct the survey
voluntarily with me. This means the observations were not perceived by only one person’s eyes,
and therefore, the results were more reliable.
The survey based on people’s thoughts and views about the bridge, or opinion-based survey
(OBS), was carried out over a period of five workdays, which was from 18th November, 2019 to
22nd November, 2019 and covered over 300 participants. This was already two months after the
bridge was opened and in use, therefore it means that a good amount of time has passed since
people began using the bridge and each person had time to develop their own thoughts of and
feelings about the bridge, which is why it was a good time for me to conduct my survey.
For details as to what the survey looked like, refer to “Appendices” section at the end.

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Data presentation and analysis

Section 1 - Opinion Based, OBS, survey results:
The participants surveyed were largely from the regions directly influenced by the bridge as either
their postal addresses or school/work locations in the Central Business District area. It is
understandable that these participants probably have the greatest understanding of the future
prospects and any change in growth patterns in the areas surrounding the Traffic Police Bridge.
Therefore, the results gained from these respondents have the most significance in giving the most
accurate results that could be derived from the survey.
When considering the age group of respondents, it can be understood that a wide cross section of
people was surveyed. Thus, the survey gave a good overall representation of the varying thoughts
on the issue, which is important in giving an unbiased and broad set of survey results. As can be
seen in Figure 16, the greatest number of people came from the age group 26-40 years, which is
working age.
It was found that the majority of respondents, 48 percent, have a neutral feeling about the
development of the Traffic Police Bridge, and 37 percent view the construction of the new bridge
positively. This is shown in Figure 17. Only 10 percent of the respondents answered “unhappy”
and 5 percent answered “apprehensive” means the new bridge had possibly reduced the amount of
traffic congestion and stress in the three CBD areas in the past two months. This could also mean
that the people who have a positive view about the bridge support the government’s objectives and
believe in the benefits that the bridge could bring in the future. There was, as illustrated in Figure
18, a pretty uneven distribution of the perceived main benefits of the bridge. The majority of the
responses were benefits very closely linked with the overall objectives of the government in
building the bridge, which are to reduce traffic congestion in the most densely populated and
congested area (CBD of the city) and to allow easier access from Zaisan District which is linked
by the Great Mongolian Street and the Olympic Street to the Central districts. Deducing from
Figure 18, 54.8 percent of the survey respondents answered that “easier access to Zaisan District”
is the main benefit the bridge will provide in the future, which supports one of the primary
objectives of the government “to allow faster and easier access between the two downtown streets,
the Olympic Street and the Great Mongolian Street”.
Depicted in Figure 19, the main concerns about the Traffic Police Bridge were again unevenly
spread across the different choices. The one that had the most votes was “No concerns”, which
shows that there was a good proportion of people who believed that the bridge won’t do any harm
in the future. Although, this proportion of respondents responding “No concerns” may be due to
the respondents’ lack of knowledge about the negative consequences the construction of the bridge
can possibly bring such as air, noise and visual pollution, in the future. The second concern that
got the highest proportion of votes was “air/noise” pollution. It is fair enough, because as a person
that grew up in a developing urban city, I was aware that one of the direct causes of air and noise
pollution in developing urban cities like Ulan Bator is heavy construction work. Construction
activities that contribute to air pollution include land clearing, operation of diesel engines,
demolition, burning and working with toxic materials (Sustainablebuild.co.uk, 2020).

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Survey: "What age group are you in?"

140

120
Number of respondents

100

80
132
60
98
40
56
20 36
14
0
10 to 17 18 to 25 26 to 40 41 to 55 56+
Age Group (Years)

Figure 17 - Results from survey question: “What age group are you in?”

Survey: "What emotion best describes your feelings about

the new bridge?"

5
10

37

48

Positive Neutral Unhappy Apprehensive

Figure 16 – Results from survey question "What emotion best describes your feelings about the new bridge?"

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Survey: "What do you think is the main benefit of the

bridge?"

4.8
4.8

35.7 54.8

Easier access to Zaisan Reduced traffic congestion in the CBD

Reduced travelling times No response

Figure 18 - Response to survey question: “What do you think is the main benefit of the bridge?”

Survey: "What is your main concern about the construction

of the bridge?"
50
45
Percentage of respondents

40
35
30
25 47.6
20
15
23.8
10
14.3
5
7.1
0 2.4
Air/Noise pollution Urban sprawl Take away business No concerns No response
from the CBD
Concerns
Figure 19 - Response to survey question: “What is your main concern about the construction of the bridge?”

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

As has stated at the beginning of the essay, it is believed that there is a strong and direct relationship
between transport networks and traffic congestion in the city, in particular that a poor maintenance
and poor management of road networks encourages increased traffic congestion and decreased
environmental quality as the Prime Minister reported “Statistics show that on an average of five
years, people of Ulaanbaatar spend 1 year stuck in traffic jam. This is because the city was built
primarily to sustain lives of 500 thousand people, although today we have almost over 1.5 million
people living in UB, and now the city is facing problems of heavy traffic congestion and therefore,
decreased environmental quality in nearly every part of UB. I believe that the construction of the
new Traffic Police Bridge will help reduce heavy traffic jam and improve environmental quality
of the city” (Translated from Mongolian) (MONTSAME, 2019). To support this statement, it was
found that 55.2 percent believed that the bridge will decrease traffic congestion in the future
(Figure 20). However, a large proportion of respondents, 34.6 percent, also believed that the bridge
would not help to reduce traffic congestion in the future as many of them reported that they have
not seen much improvement in the traffic jam of the city especially in the Central Business District
area. One respondent reported: “The Bridge is good but the connecting roads are skinny and poorly
managed. That is why we still have traffic” (Appendix 4). While the other respondent reported:
“Just building a bridge isn’t enough. The government needs to constantly focus on constructing
other types of road networks such as ring roads, or improving also public transport systems”
(Appendix 5 and 6). In addition, some even claimed that the bridge at first appeared to increase
traffic jam rather than helping to decrease it, therefore even if the bridge will reduce traffic
congestion in the future, it could be concluded that it will take a long time for us to see the results.
As shown in Figure 20, 10.2 percent of the respondents ticked “Not sure” in the survey and this
response shows how the mainly expected benefit of the bridge, which is to reduce traffic

Survey: Do you believe the Traffic Police Bridge will reduce

traffic congestion in the future?"
60

50
Percentage of people

40

30
55.2
20
34.6
10
10.2
0 0
Yes No Not sure No response
Response

Series 3

Figure 20 - Response to survey question: “Do you believe the bridge will reduce traffic congestion in the future?”

congestion, was viewed with contradicting opinions by many of the respondents.

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

The most significant question of the survey posed was: “What do you think is the best solution for
reducing traffic congestion in the city?” which is directly correlated with the research question:
“To what extent was the construction of the new Traffic Police Bridge in the Central Business
District of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia necessary for reducing traffic congestion and improving
environmental quality in the city?” The most common response was “construction of more bridges
and ring roads” as answered by 152 out of 336 respondents, and the least common response was
carpooling as answered by 32 out of 336 respondents. This is for sure in my opinion, because in
Mongolia we do not really have the concept of carpooling yet. This is all shown in Figure 21.

Survey: "What is the best solution for reducing traffic

congestion in the city?"

Carpooling 32

Traffic lights times to control traffic 48

Construction of bridges/ring roads 152

Improved public transport systems 104

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Number of respondents

Figure 21 - Response to survey question: “What is the best solution for reducing traffic congestion in the city?”

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Section 2 - Contrasting the benefits and concerns of the Traffic Police Bridge with
the MONTSAME and other news report:
The idea that the construction of the Traffic Police Bridge will bring many benefits, such as easier
access to the Zaisan district from the Central Business District, reduced traffic congestion and
clogging in the CBD, and reduced travelling times can be further supported by the urban growth
response towards the construction of the bridge reported by the MONTSAME – Mongolian news.
Translated from Mongolian, it states that, “It resolved the issue of intersection between the railway
and the Sun Bridge on the way from the CBD of the city to Zaisan District and Olympic street. As
a result, it is possible to prevent car-train accidents, which means it created a safer bypass in the
area. At the next intersection, the expansion and renovation of the Olympic street intersections,
and the possibility of a disabled person on the pedestrian crossing will be built in the budget of
2020. This will include pedestrian crossing and light signals as described in the short and long-
term road network plans. In addition, the authorities are introducing the 2020 budget to increase
the bridge's load in high-intensity traffic areas in the capital city. Therefore, the bridge of the
Traffic Police is well-organized in terms of traffic management. The Yarmag Bridge (constructed
in 2017) was heavily affected by its initial criticism, but now the passengers are in good terms with
the bridge” (MONTSAME, 2019). By examining the influence of the construction of the Traffic
Police Bridge will have on traffic congestion in the future, similar deductions can be made about
the environmental quality in the area. The lower the traffic congestion and noise pollution, stress
and concentration of people following it in the area, the higher the surrounding environmental
quality will be. This will be further discussed in section three below.
Even though the officials seek the benefits the bridge would bring, they also care about the
concerns it might bring. According to Eguur.mn – a Mongolian news website, the bridge was
heavily congested after it was opened and this had brought concerns to many officials. However,
it reported that it won’t be a huge problem after a few months of use and that the people will realize
the significance and the benefits the bridge will bring. Translated from Mongolian, the officials
report that “Previously, the cars and passengers on the Sun Bridge had to stop every time a train
passed by because of their intersection at the bridge. Not only there was danger for cars colliding
with trains but also after the train passed, left, west, southward traffic congestion appeared on the
bridge”. “By constructing the Traffic Police Bridge, this problem was solved fully” (Eguur.mn,
2019). This report was further supported by the survey responses, in which majority of the
respondents reported that the main benefit of the bridge was an easier access to Zaisan District.

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Section 3 - Environmental Quality, EQS, survey results:

Marks Amount of traffic congestion, noise
pollution and visual pollution
1-2 High
3-4 Above average
5-6 Average
7-8 Below average
9-10 Low
Table 1 - Meanings of marks given for EQS

EQS #1:
Qualities assessed Marks gained Maximum available marks
Amount of traffic congestion 2 10
Amount of noise pollution 4 10
Amount of visual pollution 2 10
Total environmental quality 8 30
Table 2 - Results for EQS #1, Shangri-La Mall

Qualities assessed Marks gained Maximum available marks

Amount of traffic congestion 4 10
Amount of noise pollution 2 10
Amount of visual pollution 2 10
Total environmental quality 8 30
Table 3 - Results for EQS #1, State Department Store

Qualities assessed Marks gained Maximum available marks

Amount of traffic congestion 2 10
Amount of noise pollution 3 10
Amount of visual pollution 5 10
Total environmental quality 10 30
Table 4 - Results for EQS #1, E-mart Department Store

EQS #2:
Qualities assessed Marks gained Maximum available marks
Amount of traffic congestion 7 10
Amount of noise pollution 9 10
Amount of visual pollution 7 10
Total environmental quality 23 30
Table 5 - Results for EQS #2, Shangri-La Mall

Qualities assessed Marks gained Maximum available marks

Amount of traffic congestion 6 10
Amount of noise pollution 4 10
Amount of visual pollution 4 10
Total environmental quality 14 30
Table 6 - Results for EQS #2, State Department Store

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Qualities assessed Marks gained Maximum available marks

Amount of traffic congestion 4 10
Amount of noise pollution 5 10
Amount of visual pollution 7 10
Total environmental quality 16 30
Table 7 - Results for EQS #2, E-mart Department Store

Comparing the results of EQS #1 to EQS #2:

As can be seen from Tables 5, 6 and 7, the environmental quality in the thee areas investigated all
increased in general. The results show that after the new Traffic Police Bridge was built, the traffic
congestions in all three areas reduced by small amounts. Following these changes, the amount of
noise and visual pollution also decreased. It can be seen that there is a direct and strong relationship
between the amount of traffic congestion and the quality of the environment in one area.
The results are seen to be the most effective around Shangri-La Mall. This is probably because it
is the area where the new bridge was built and so, it is the one that is directly influenced by the
bridge and its activities. The other two areas, E-mart Department Store and the State Department
Store seemed to be improving in their environmental quality by about the same amount as each
other (Tables 6 and 7). Even though by a small amount, this shows how changing and improving
one part of a large road network can improve the other parts in the network.

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Conclusion
It has been shown that there is a strong correlation between the development of a major transport
road and traffic congestion management. In particular, that traffic congestion will be reduced
following the Traffic Police Bridge construction. Thus, in relation to the Traffic Police Bridge,
deduced by the primary data collected by surveying over three hundred people, considering
planning schemes and strategic studies already undergone by the officials in charge of the
construction of the new bridge and the Prime Minister, and further supported by the secondary
evidence collected, traffic congestion is likely to be reduced mostly in the areas connecting the
Olympic Street with The Great Mongolia Street, which is the area around Shangri-La mall and
further leading to Zaisan district to the South. Traffic congestion is also likely to reduce around
the areas of E-mart Department store as more people living in Zaisan are now able to access the
CBD through the Traffic Police Bridge; in general, meaning that there are alternative road
networks to use. Other possible effective solutions were also identified basing on the OBS results.
This included improved public transport systems, construction of more bridges and ring roads, and
carpooling. Main few concerns the bridge might bring in the future were also identified, however,
after looking through the results of the environmental quality survey, it could be seen that noise
and visual pollution reduced in all three areas as the traffic congestion started decreasing.
Theoretically, and basing on EQS survey results, the environmental quality is projected to increase
as traffic congestion decreases. However, the increase was by a small amount and overtime, as the
reduction in traffic congestion gives out more of its advantages, and as the traffic congestion is
reduced more in the future following improvements in other sectors of city development such as
improving public transport systems, introducing carpooling and better functioning of traffic lights
timed to control traffic, it is possible to see further improvements in the environmental quality.
Overall, the traffic congestion did reduce to a certain extent. Concluding, the construction of the
new Traffic Police Bridge in the Central Business District area of Ulan Bator, Mongolia was
necessary to contribute to reduce the traffic congestion in the area, which is the main goal of the
government.

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Appendices

Appendix 1 - Opinion Based Survey (Author's own) Appendix 2 - Opinion Based Survey in Mongolian (Author's
own)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Appendix 3 – Sample OBS (Author's own)

Appendix 4 - Respondent's thoughts on the Traffic Police Bridge

(Author’s own)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Appendix 5 - Respondent's thoughts on the new Traffic Police Bridge (Author’s own)

Appendix 6 - Respondent's Thought on the Traffic Police Bridge (Author's own)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

Appendix 7 - Environmental Quality Survey (Author's own)

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ASSESSING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF A NEW BRIDGE IN ULAN BATOR

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